Ed Miliband Scores With Confident Speech

By

Iain Martin

Sep 28, 2010 2:47 pm GMT

Ending his conference address, Ed Miliband cleverly zeroed in on the Tories current biggest weaknesses. In trying to prove their credentials on deficit reduction, they have eschewed developing a narrative of Reagan-style optimism about what lies ahead for the economy once austerity is done.

So he said: “We are the optimists in politics today… Optimistic about out country… Optimistic about our country… We are the optimists and together we will change Britain.”

Perhaps. Gordon Brown was an optimist once. Which is why he missed his so-called golden rule by £450+ billion and didn’t spot boom turning to bust.

Anyway, it was a confident first leader’s speech from Mili E. He looked edgy at first but picked up as he got into it. By the end he was showing almost no signs of nerves. He went off-script several times in an amusing way and was comfortable poking fun at himself (saying some people think he’s Wallace from Wallace & Gromit). He’ll get more skilled at platform speaking, but he energized his conference in the final section.

Then watching him rush through the throng outside, flashbulbs popping, press pack in pursuit, he started to look like a leader.

Content? It was quite disjointed. Other than knocking Brown on boom and bust there wasn’t much of an economic argument.

But for a first go? The ruling committee of DUEMA (the Don’t Underestimate Ed Miliband Association) had been poised to suspend its operations and wind down our club. But no. The speech was punchy, confident and a good start for Labour’s new leader.